"And I Saw A Woman Sitting On A Scarlet Beast...."

         Well I certainly wasn't going to write about this but Drudge just plastered it all over his Report so here goes. Madonna had a fall in her performance at an awards ceremony in London. I imagine that she's alright for she got up, a little dishevelled, and finished the performance.
          She was dressed in scarlet, the curtains were scarlet, the bulls were scarlet, although they looked more like demons....with horns. One thing for sure is that they were beasts, you'll have to see for yourself. Anyway, Madonna is ascending the stage and the demons...or bulls...or whatever....were bowing down to her in some kind of worship. It looked she was trying to remove her cape for she was a matador, and fell backwards landing on her back and shoulders
          Here are some of those lyrics to the song Living For Love:

First you love me and I let you in
Made me feel like I was born again
You empowered me, you made me strong
Built me up and I can do no wrong

Took me to heaven and let me fall down
Now that it's over
I'm gonna carry on


I found my freedom in the ugly truth
I deserve the best and it's not you

I picked up my crown, put it back on my head.....

Come on, come on, come on
I need you to
lift me up up up
Come on
lift me up Lord

          OK this is Madonna, we expect things like crosses and religious symbols from her but what came to my mind as I viewed this were some verses in the Book of Revelation:
          "And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH"
          I'm not connecting the two for Madonna is all show, rather I'm pointing out that these forms of gross mockery of Scripture have become commonplace since at least the 60s and usually it's aimed at the young. Revelation 17: 3-5 depicts a scarlet beast and a woman arrayed in scarlet sitting on it, Madonna sits on one in the video, and therefore that's the color they will mock God with.
          It is time to read the Book of Revelation, not with a Christian bestseller at hand to identify all the symbols, not in trying to decode it, but in a meditative mood for these things will indeed come to pass and the mockery today may be inspired by that scarlet beast.

And The Award Goes To

"Those Who Make Them Become Like Them"

         So many people today have eyes but cannot see the complete chaos this world and this country in the midst of right now, they have ears but cannot hear the evidence that there is something seriously wrong with this man Barack Hussein Obama beyond politics or even ideologies, they have mouths but can say nothing about the intellectual and ethical corruption that has become the plague of choice today, they have noses but cannot smell the stench in our society, they have hands that can pick up nothing to read that can help them and they have feet that can go nowhere to can learn.
        You may recognize that these images come from the 115th Psalm where idols of silver and gold were made by human hands but the idol itself could do nothing but sit there. Verses 8 adds:
             "Those who make them become like them;
               So do all who trust in them.
         What else can explain nearly half of America that is as if under a spell in that the grossest distortions of America's heritage, previously unimaginable really, even beyond the pen of the most capable author of espionage thrillers or the macabre, goes undetected or ignored?
         What this portion of the 115th Psalm is saying is that those who worship idols that cannot see or hear or speak or smell or feel or walk.....will become just like them. If you cannot see the absolute perfect storm bearing down upon us right now then it is because, like those idols of silver and gold, you have eyes but cannot see.

American Idols

          Elvis had not been out of the army long before he made two dramatic movies in succession. In the second, Wild In The Country, he played a young man in trouble with the law and about to go to jail but the parole board saw something decent and valuable to society in him. There's a scene at his pre-trial where the pastor of his youth came up to him and asked him some very in-depth questions on verses in the Bible in which Elvis answered every on of them. There were more references to the Bible in the rest of the film, actually it was pretty amazing. I bring this up to evidence the fact that up to my generation at least, Americans had a familiarity with God's Word from their youth, from Sunday School and from many other sources. One particular theme that seemed to crop up a lot was the 'idolatry' in the Old Testament. The Israelites picked up on the customs of the pagans around them and the next thing you know was that they had idols everywhere also, even to the point of sacrificing their babies to them.
          We think of idols as only being from antiquity. The Golden Calf? Interesting for sure but not something we would ever make in such an enlightened culture as ours. But we do indeed have our own idols, we worship them, and we even sacrifice our babies to them. One other thing, God's judgement on us will be the same.
          The first Academy Award statuette was awarded about five months before the great Wall Street collapse of 1929. The Oscar as it is known today is 13.5 inches tall and weighs about 8.5 pounds and cost about $400 hundred dollars to make. It's supposed to be a knight holding a sword and was designed in the style of Art Deco. My wife and I were on a cruise this past summer and the grand dining room was in Art Deco with a Great Gatsby theme. It's a very symmetrical design, very modern, very 20th century. This little statuette and the honor perceived in attaining one and the celebrity of all those who own one is a perfect example of an idol that we have in our society today. Place the awards ceremonies on the Lord's Day and you might as well be at the foot of Mount Sinai.
           We have other types of idols today that we worship. Young women who have bought into the lie that happiness is in all that they can acquire in power and in sexual freedom often sacrifice their babies through abortion in worship to that idol. Men who have bought into the lie worship the conquest of that same idol.
           I could go on and on concerning today's idols for I consider myself somewhat of an expert because I owned so many myself. I still keep a few around and dust them off once in a while. The purpose of this post is not in condemning the Academy Awards or any such idol, rather it is in trying to demonstrate that the pagan cultures had theirs, Israel had theirs and we have ours and that God's judgement will not discriminate.
          We in the church are very open in admitting to having idols in our lives. Searching out these idols and trying to remove them is good but we generally don't associate those idols with those in the Old Testament, therefore the hideousness and malignancy of them is masked to us as is the accompanying punishment. If we could see the wildly popular television show Modern Family for example as an idol very similar to those that Josiah destroyed we might meditate on what is actually transpiring here in America.  Well, I've got to go for just writing on this topic is convicting me to  meditate on the idols in my own life and seeking God's mercy in granting discernment and perseverance and strength in destroying them.
          
         

Israel And America

         It's been sixty-six years since the Jewish people miraculously became a state, and in their own land at that, and for a purpose related to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. They've survived wars brought upon them and many other serious problems which were of their own making. The dangers that they are facing right now, and there is certainly no pun intended here, are of biblical proportions. Their greatest ally, a nation also born miraculously and for the purpose of disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world as its power is a stabilizing force in that world, and a nation for whom Israel's existence today is indebted..... has fallen....not militarily, but the defensive walls have collapsed inwards and its demise is happening right now. Israel does not seek God's protection and we no longer feel the need of it. In any and all decisions that we make in this dangerous and chaotic world.....we are on our own. The following two posts were from 2013"


         There's a story in the 19th and 20th chapters of the Old Testament book of Judges that we in America might want to consider. It records disastrous events in Israel revolving around.... an outrageous crime.... a coalition army..... and civil war. It is also very reminiscent of the Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
         The crime was a murderous rape of a traveler's concubine by a mob of men, a mob that first demanded that the traveler himself come out to them to be sexually assaulted. The men of this mob were from the tribe of Benjamin  The coalition is the remaining eleven tribes of Israel that form an army to bring the guilty men to justice. The tribe of Benjamin refuses to give the men over and a civil war erupts within Israel.
         Israel apparently did not first seek out God's wisdom in the matter! Their own council would suffice! Instead they only asked God which tribe should lead the attack.  God gave them the answer that they wanted...it was Judah, but Israel's much larger army of 400,000 men was then routed by the 26,000 men of the tribe of Benjamin! It was only on the third attack did God say that he would give victory to Israel who had already paid dearly in the loss of life while the tribe of Benjamin was eventually so devastated that from that time on they were known as the smallest of the tribes.

The New York State School Prayer
 
         It was a little over fifty years ago that Regents of the educational system of New York put in place this short prayer to be read in classrooms: Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our teachers and our country. Some objected to this and the ensuing case went to the Supreme Court in Engel vs. Vitale where a six to one decision was rendered in favor of the plaintiff. Potter Stewart was the only Justice in dissent. This was a landmark decision that led to other court decisions that evicted Almighty God from the classroom. We have utterly collapsed as a nation since then as we have had assassinations, a war that was lost from within as was a war on drugs, a recently politicized and politically correct national defense, economic suicide through the bailout and stimulus, rampant narcissism culminating in the monstrosity of a Facebook culture, tens of millions of legal abortions and whole professions that have utterly failed their callings; plus we have a Manchurian President put in office by others who hate America...its traditions... its belief in God and its individualism and finally marriage between a man and a woman only may be co-opted by those raised in an educational system that has officially ignored if not ridiculed... God. Would it be a good idea for Christians to resurrect that prayer, to start our day with it, to close our eyes at night with it on our lips, to recite it as we read of the latest horror story in the news and to meditate upon it each and every time that we see our flag flying in front of those schools, those court houses and post offices? I think that it would, only I would add we beg thy forgiveness and mercy to "blessings."

Welcome To Venezuela

        The late night comics make jokes about him, The tabloids seem to never lack for a story and the public, those not on the payroll, now knows who Barack Obama truly is. He should have been impeached years ago and back in the spring of 2012 few thought he would be elected for a second term. Many in the coal industry thought the effort to drive them into bankruptcy would end and invested accordingly but the elites in the Republican Party were yet to be heard from that summer and here we are.
        It's not that the 'change' could not be undone for it could. Obamacare could be reversed, our borders could be secured, the EPA could be reigned in, the Constitution could be dusted off and marriage only between a man and a woman could return. The 'change' isn't the problem. The problem is the rot.
        We, America, have become something we didn't think was possible. We thought that it would have taken a Civil War to break this union but it took something less violent but far more destructive. It took only lies...lies and greed.  Where did it start? We valued the truth at one time. Many today, even some in government, still do, but lies dominate our politics, both sides of the aisle, impoverishing our heritage and penetrating the shield of our national defense. The Republican Party leadership couldn't tell the truth even if it benefited them. They'd think there must be something wrong. And the Democrats are swallowed up by lies and deception, losing track of reality decades ago.
        Corporations lie, not all of them by any means, but enough of them to have thoroughly infected capitalism. Academia and the science community have blown all credibility with the Global Warming scam. The IRS has proven itself untrustworthy, our mainstream news media resembles the Third Reich's Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Justice Department is anything but, in fact every federal agency is under suspicion, the legal profession lost credibility decades ago and everyday kindergarten to twelfth grade education has turned into a giant social experiment. Welcome to Venezuela! All of this, and more, just as our enemies have regrouped and are loaded for bear.
         We have a Marxist/Communist president who no longer cares what anyone thinks of him. This is the endgame. He has the advantage and promises to press it until his side can proclaim checkmate. One meaningless move can turn the game around but when one has all the power of the presidency at his fingertips, all the czars and cabinet secretaries, the generals and law enforcement, sycophants and wannabees following him on the golf course, plus a hundred iou's to call in and pink slips to threaten with, then one controls the entire board.
          Greed has done us in. All over America, at lunch tables, in family rooms and on bar stools, we ask incredulously "How much money do they need?" What makes a man jeopardize his future and his family for a few million more? What makes a man deprive another of his livelihood for a bigger bonus. Isn't their present yacht big enough?
          No, the damage is done and we have done it to ourselves. Many commentators have labelled it suicide.... "Did he purposely take all those pills or was it some kind of tragic accident?" In our case it was an accident. We only saw the 'V.' We thought we were taking Viagra but it was Valium. It didn't kill us it just blurred our vision and sent us into a stupor so our enemies could do the job.
          Ultimately, good may come out of this. If we can see how far we have fallen in the well then we  might just be able to see the stars in the afternoon sky that beckon us. The following is part of a Puritan prayer titled Valley Of Vision in a book of the same title:

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty.
thy glory in my valley.
          

The Rine....In Spine....Sties Minely....In The Pline

         Aah the theatre! I took an acting class at Pitt in the early 70s and the first half of it was going well. I worked on one scene, not even a scene but a couple of lines, for we all had lines from different plays. I was Paul Bratter from Barefoot In The Park. I stood on a chair and said good-bye to a hole in the skylight. I thought I had great potential for it's not easy talking to a hole in a skylight. Alas, we moved quickly on to improvisational techniques. I was to be a snake on the ground. I was a terrible snake for I had not any idea as to how to slither. My ego was crushed and I dropped the class. Too bad...I could have been a contender.
        I enjoyed the plays at Pitt's Stephen Foster Memorial Theater and once took a young lady from the Theater Arts Department out to dinner where we met some of her friends at the restaurant. I felt totally out of place in the short conversation. We were so different. I felt that they snickered at this older student, and army veteran in a field jacket. I felt that way a little bit tonight even though my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed My Fair Lady at Pittsburgh's O'Reilly Theater in the Cultural District. I'm sure that it was all in my head for I had on a tie and sweater and aside from the pipe and tobacco sticking out of my worn leather coat and the bright yellow, somewhat dirty, ball cap with specialdogg.blogspot.com embroidered on it in my hand, I almost fit in. No, I think that it was the money aspect for these were expensive seats, given in generosity to us from friends, and I'm sure that the folks that support the theater are of the very upper crust. I tried not to move during the performance for fear that it would be found out that a street person had found his way in. I had a coughing spell for about a minute and saw myself as a wastrel imposing his dodgy behavior on the sanctity of an intimate setting of the performing arts. In short, I was Eliza Doolittle trying to be cultured while at the races only to blow my cover because of a tickle in the throat. Yes, I was indeed Eliza, only I could never in a million years pull off what she did at the Grand Ball.
        Untrained eye for the theater though I might have, I thought the play and the actors and the theater were great. There was one scene...one scene where I felt as if I were on the stage. George Bernard Shaw, the author of Pygmalion, aka My Fair Lady, was an atheist and a radical Socialist and he surely was as far away in his intent from my interpretation as Barack Obama is from a constitutional lawyer, but the emotion is the same. Eliza had, for the first time, pronounced one of Henry Higgins phonetic tests correctly....the...Rain...in...Spain...stays mainly....in the plain. She was free, no longer doomed forever to be an uncultured flower girl. She had pronounced something purely. She had partaken of the grace of civilized society. She had hope. It was three in the morning and the governess of the home urged her to get some sleep but the thrill of it had set her to dancing and singing around the room....as a lady....a lady. I'm reminded here of the stories told about Sarah Edwards, wife of the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards, upon experiencing the majesties of Christ. She too could have.....praised her Savior.... all night long! I'm reminded also of my own epiphany many years ago at finding that the most undeserving creature of all was given clean clothes to wear and words of the most profound eloquence to say....."To Him (Jesus) be...blessing....and honor...and glory...and might...forever and ever!" That feeling never leaves one unless one voluntarily bids it adieu.
          I took liberties in this post, for effect, as to people's positions in life, only to emphasize here that....to the one who calls Jesus their Lord and Savior, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for (all) are one in Christ Jesus."

The Winslow Boy

         Valentine's Day was easy and fun when I was in elementary school. We all were told to bring a tissue box for other students to put their Valentines in. No one was forced to bring a Valentine for each and every student but everyone did it anyway. If you really wanted to send a message you could always put the more special Valentines in that more special person' tissue box. And I really like those little heart shaped candies with a message on them. I wonder how kids can have the same joy in that tradition today. I mean you probably already texted that person a half a dozen times by the time you got to school. And how does that same child dream about holding the hand of a little red-headed girl as Charlie Brown did when they have images of sex thrown at them in even the seemingly most tame television sitcoms, not to mention commercials and film? As a ten year old I had a television crush on Lori Martin of National Velvet. Can that simplicity even happen today? The following post is from Valentine's Day 2010 and I bring it back about every year. You may have time to rent the DVD of the film that I mention in the post. It currently ranks as my second most favorite movie, right behind Chariots Of Fire.

"Easy To Do Justice....Very Hard To Do Right."

         Playwrights have an advantage over novelists. The novelist can write for a thousand pages detailing the scene, the person, even the history of the age, but the playwright can spend all of his time on dialogue. I can read and enjoy a Neil Simon play almost anytime. Terence Rattigan wrote The Winslow Boy which has been turned into two films. One in 1948 starring Robert Donat and the more recent film from 1999, directed by David Mamet. The plot is that of a young boy at a prestigious military school in England (circa 1900) who is accused of stealing some money. His father and sister set out on a seemingly impossibly task of forcing the government to withdraw the accusations against him. Enter the most famous jurist of England, Sir Robert Morton, who takes on this case to the surprise of even his loyal friends.
         The film is a remarkable story of a father's love for his son, a sister's quest for fairness and justice in society, and a barrister's pursuit of right. It is also a love story but if you ask ten people who saw the film they might wonder where the romance was. The boy's sister and the famous barrister are poles apart politically in an age that is seeing women take their place in society. An unlikely couple if their ever would be one. Indeed, there is no romantic dialogue, not even the holding of hands. What there is, is one or two looks given for a second and two comments at the end of the film that says it all. The trial is over and essentially the film. Miss Winslow and the barrister are parting, what would seem to be forever, but she had to make one last comment on the emotion he displayed at the verdict, for she previously doubted any sincerity in this lawyer of lawyers. She elicited from him a parting comment on her continuing feminist activities of which he said Pity, it's a lost cause. Her final words were Oh, do you really think so Sir Robert? How little you know about women. Goodbye, I doubt that we should meet again. She may have been correct about the future of women's suffrage in England but that was not the issue on trial in this dialogue here as he parted with, Oh, do you really think so, Miss Winslow? How little you know about men.
           I have never, as an adult, been a fan of Valentine's Day for it seems trite. We are submerged in a culture of words and phrases such as Erich Segal's, given to Ryan O'Neill, Love means never having to say your sorry. It's too late to recommend The Winslow Boy for Valentine's Day but then it fell on a Sunday this year and that is another love story altogether and it would probably be better to view it without all the trappings of hearts and candy anyway

God Gave Us Barack Obama

       The thing that amazes me most about the Brian Williams scandal is this. The liberal media, his peers, are coming down hard on him. They are aghast at his past actions of not telling the truth. This same media has witnessed Barack Obama in action for over six years, lying his way into office, professing to be a Christian, professing to love America and professing to honor the Constitution when he despises all three, and it did not phase them one iota. Whatever attraction they have for this Marxist Manchurian President of ours it must be strong for they sold out our country in the process. This same media that ignores dishonesty in the Global Warming debate is appalled by Brian Williams.
       What we have here, and I've written about it before, is the liberal media attempting to assuage their guilt of having no foundations anymore. The have long since rejected God and forsaken their American heritage. If these are the last of the last days and what the Bible proclaims as "great tribulation" in Matthew 24:21 is near, this media will welcome with open arms every lie and deception within it.
       The prophet Nahum gave us this description of Nineveh, "Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims." Does this not sound like America today? Read Nahum and weep because you will see a little too much of us! Read Isaiah! Read all the prophets and the Psalms and Mathew 24 and Revelation. Did you see the Grammys last night? You could have read the entire book of Jeremiah in that time! The following post is from last year:

"God Gave Us Barack Obama"

          I chose the New American Standard Bible for this verse from Hosea 9:7... "The days of punishment have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, The inspired man is demented, Because of the grossness of your iniquity, And because your hostility is so great." Those faithful preachers who weep in their pulpits....who weep for America, for their children and their children's children, and who weep at what the American church has become, are thought of as country bumpkins, fundamentalist fools and worse. Such is the state of the American mind in this age of rampant rebellion and toxic temperance towards godlessness as our nation surrenders on every hill. Such is the hostility to anything that might interfere with plans and goals.
          There is no excuse for not seeing the imminent peril our nation faces. There are reasons but not excuses. Our nation's leaders are the beginnings of our punishment! In speaking to a church congregation this past week, New York Congressman Charlie Rangel made this statement..."God gave us Barack Obama." He probably never spoke truer words.
          There has never been a perfect storm as is brewing today and we are rapidly becoming a police state as it is about to hit. Yet we party on. Billy Graham has been consistent in his warnings to America. John MacArthur has been consistent also, but we don't have ears to hear, and we don't have eyes to see. We are deaf to the Approaching Hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to use the title of a 1985 book by Rev. Graham
          Fervent prayer, steeped in humility and salted with our sweat is our only hope, our only defensive weapon.

Presumption

         Most readers would disagree with this post but some would agree to some extent. Would you consider reading this in a Bible study to generate conversation, or around the dinner table, or in general conversation at the Student Union? Is not the topic even worth considering?

         American society has utterly collapsed. The United States of America is no longer what it used to be. I lived in both the older one and now in this one and they are different entities; and my generation, the late 60s, was already on its way to oblivion. Our government has completely rejected Jesus Christ, as both political parties consider the Lord of Glory, the benefactor and sustainer of all our blessings, to be excess baggage, even a hindrance to saving this sinking ship. The church, in an attempt to rally the secular world to its side, has become adept at devising new theologies that have meliorated the Christian Faith such that God is portrayed as much more open-minded in accepting our perceptions of what love and compassion truly are. What is left to our Christian heritage is not even a facade; the facade was in my day. If you don't believe this, well, there's nothing I can write to convince you...just stay tuned, for God has been warning us for decades. If you think that He will continue to warn us for more decades without our repentance then you have gone beyond faith into presumption.
         The following is an older post from a few years ago that I bring back from time to time:

         The further one's mind is from God on a daily basis the less one will feel imminent judgement upon a rebellious world. That is to say that if you have filled your glass up with sports and entertainments and accumulating riches, do not expect the remaining space in the glass to hold much in the way of discernment. The Bible was once an American's most valuable possession. Today it is either an artifact, a talisman for prosperity, or a rather large and bulky ticket one must have in their possession to enter heaven...should heaven really exist. In reality it is the Omnipotent God's Word to fallen man, the greatest treasure on earth, which brings the greatest joy, draws forth the most ardent love and applies a devastating guilt followed by a torrent of mercy that elicits praises upon praises for mercies undeserved.....all given because of faith, faith alone, in the One who took our sins to a tree on  Calvary. If my words seen overly pious or even syrupy, might I suggest that there may be an underlying cause for your hesitance to shout praises yourself; or if the Bible does not captivate you as God's Word to you, you might never have truly seen those words.
          The following post is political and temporal yes, but only in as much as we are citizens of a nation that God blessed for a purpose, a purpose which may very well have completed its course.

All Is Lost.....Or Is It......January of 2013

          It was heroic at times and trying at times but always set apart by a common creed.…life as an American in these United States of America. God blessed this endeavor from the beginning as pilgrims left their homelands where tyranny had enveloped even the church and they saw this new land of America as a new beginning for them and an extension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the new world. The long distance from the heavy hand of the King of England encouraged them to see beyond being merely a colony or an extension of England to being a nation unto themselves.
          Liberty is a powerful force and freedom empowers one to reach beyond what would otherwise be available. In the mid-eighteenth century, after the First Great Awakening, the Gospel began to wane as great political minds filled the void and a secular government…that nonetheless proclaimed its dependence upon God…. came forth. Economic growth followed as the frontier was conquered but we faced an enormous stumbling block, the separation of two peoples in two different geographic areas over the issues of state’s rights and slavery. God’s heavy hand of judgment came upon a nation that had forgotten who had bestowed upon it its blessings. We turned to Him momentarily but a brand  new frontier of industrial growth drew us away again only this time our educational institutions followed. An already weakened church was at that time under full scale attack from European theological liberalism. God’s judgments now began to come upon the entire world in wars and economic collapse. We retained the sense of being Americans, of being free and of having liberty and defending the liberties of others while the Gospel went throughout the world... and then we hit our peak.
          We were the most powerful nation on this earth both economically and militarily. We had a creed that bound us together as Americans. We had heroes and causes and confidence. There’s a scene in the classic Marlon Brando film The Wild One where a girl asks the young Brando what he is rebelling against. His answer was “What do you got?” This became the hidden mantra of the 60s generation…my generation. Everything was available to us and little of it was good. America found itself in smaller wars, trying to do what it had done before but the mantle was gone. We were then a lost generation when a former“B” actor in Hollywood revived the memory of that which was good in us but the rebellious generation of the 60s had produced our college professors and they in turn trained our media, the source of most information and news. Our creed that once bound us together was being hacked away at. We were now not only ignoring our heritage, we were attacking it, ashamed of it. Old heroes are old news. Heroes today are created for a purpose irrespective of what they might have done…good or bad. We were no longer “one” as a people but groups, each one out only for themselves.
          God had watched all of this. The Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical which ultimately became the Karl Rove evangelical. Our pulpits, no longer capable of preaching Christ, preached whatever they thought would bring people in. The Democratic Party fell first, taken over by Progressives and then Communists. The Republican Party fell next, taken over by political machinery without a soul. Our country essentially lies in ruins, the demolition notice just hasn’t been served. Yet most of the people party on but that's not unusual, for history is replete with empires that fell while it’s people were oblivious to its nearing demise.
          All is lost! Or is it? From the vantage point of observation and reality it is. Common sense and truth are utterly impotent in the postmodern mind. The blessing of capitalism became the God of capitalism and then a scourge of profiteering. We pray to it but it does not answer. Our culture is in shambles. We have disasters ahead and we may as well know it beforehand. Fill in the blanks on what they might be. God’s hand had departed from us long before we even heard the name Barack Hussein  Obama. If His will is to awaken us one more time it will not be within a political party but over all the land and upon all those who suddenly see what we have done...and who we have become....a people who have forsaken their God. Should God open our eyes and revive us there is no power on earth that can stop it. Those on the outside will utterly abhor what they see happening.

       This is our hope. It always has been our hope. Apparently we have to reach bottom to see this and we are not there yet. May God have mercy upon us once again and do so entirely for His glory alone.

Chris Kyle and J. C. Ryle

         American Sniper is now officially the biggest box office war movie ever. I finally saw it today and can understand why. There's a scene where Chris Kyle is home between two of his four deployments; he's driving along the highway with his wife and they're having a serous conversation, he's ruminating about how bizarre it is that people back home seem to go about their own business oblivious to their country being at war. Actually this is in the recipe box under Collapsed Nation Souffle.....one cup of ignorance, a cup of whole negligence, two tablespoons of finely grated arrogance, a dash of postmodernism, just enough liberal Christianity to where you will not vomit over the smell of it, garnish it with pride, spread it over a pie crust of narcissism and bake it until it collapses.
         Surely you know the story behind Chris Kyle. He was a Navy Seal, a sniper and a genuine hero. He finally came back home for good and was killed by a....well, we'll find out more about the perpetrator of this surreal, heinous act in his trial which is in the process of picking jurors right now.
         Looking more closely at the matter, the churches collapsed and then society, and next will be the nation itself. The fact that there are those like Chris Kyle all throughout our military is not enough to overcome the influence of the media, academia, corporate greed and well-entrenched establishment politicians. The fact that there were men like Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle in the pulpits of England, and B. B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen in America was not enough to overcome the palatable teachings of a man-made false gospel. 
         Apparently Chris Kyle carried a Bible with him throughout his life and even in the military but a comment was made in the movie that he was never seen opening it. Where is your Bible right now? The supreme irony in America today is that the single most valuable object on earth, that compilation of sixty-six books inspired by our Creator, sits all too often on a shelf out of sight and out of mind. The Westminster Larger Catechism reads, "The holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God" that "...principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man." There is only one answer to Chris Kyle's agony over America and to the concerns of the Tea Party people, and that answer would emanate from that book and would be preached in pulpits throughout our nation.
      
 The following is a portion of an older post:    

          The Chapel Library is a ministry that "Send (s) Christ centered materials from prior centuries worldwide." I would like to quote that 19th century Anglican preacher from London, J. C. Ryle from one of those tracts.
           "As long as you live, beware of a religion in which there is not much of the cross (emphasis his).....there is carved oak and sculptured stone; there is stained glass and brilliant painting; there are solemn services and a constant round of ordinances; but the real cross of Christ is not there. (emphasis mine) Jesus Christ is not proclaimed in the pulpit. The Lamb of God is not lifted up, and salvation by faith in Him is not freely proclaimed. And hence, all is wrong......Do not be ashamed of the 'old paths' in which men walked who were inspired by the Holy Ghost. Let not the vague talk of modern teachers, who speak great swelling words about 'catholicity' and 'the church' disturb your peace and make you loose your hands from the cross."
           Our pulpits, many of them, are filled with men who love Christ but for one reason or another failed in their calling to preach Him. Pray for them for in doing so you will be praying for us all in a nation that, evidenced by news items every day, is hastening to oblivion.

Stark Contrast

I'll bring back this older post for a day or so for it addresses every young person in every generation:


         As I look over five and a half years of posts, most of them remain as relevant as if written today. Some indeed are topical but the central themes are the same.....America, prepare to meet thy God....America is in the midst of a coup.....social media dumbs down an already reality intolerant American mind.....the American Christian church believes itself to be healthy but it is mistaken.....to Europe and other nations of this world, if we lose this fight, you lose also.....and.... there is little difference between the establishment wing, or the the elites of the Republican Party and the Democrat Party, both of which truly serve only the secular ruling class of this world.
         As for the Christian posts and message....."they don't come any weaker or more unworthy than me".....today is the day for your salvation, not tomorrow......there is no more precious object on this earth, no more valuable possession, than that book gathering dust on the second shelf of your bookcase next to Tom Clancy, Stephen King, Danielle Steel or any one of such authors who you can read forty-five minutes every night before bed.....and.... the majesty, the power and the glory of Jesus Christ is such that the closer you get, the more you know your need of Him as both Lord and Savior, the more you see His righteous judgement, the more thankful you are for His mercy, and the more fleeting this world and its baubles appear!
         With this in mind, I'm attempting to bring back past posts, often for only a day.

Stark Contrast.....May, 2014

         Surely somewhere in America on that bleak or snowy Saturday in early December 1941 a young man sat looking out of a restaurant window, or maybe a coffee shop, with a young lady at his side who was his new bride. They had the world at their fingertips as he was just awarded that treasured college diploma he worked so long and hard for, and she wore the wedding band she had dreamed about since they first met in grade school. They looked into each other's eyes with hardly a care in the world. Oh, the plans they had so much fun making.....a small cottage with a white picket fence that someday would keep little ones and maybe a puppy dog from straying as they play.
          And then the morning came and as they walked into church the somber faces took their joy away for they had not heard the news from that group of islands where the sun shown year round and warm surf slapped the white beaches. America was in the war against evil that they had only given themselves minutes a day to reflect upon. The young bride knew immediately that their dreams would now be put on hold if they would ever come true. Surely the prayers of all present in that worship service were salted with tears.
          Not every generation has its hopes interrupted as this generation did on December 7th, 1941 but our young generation today may indeed be another one. Colleges and universities are having their commencement right about now and the hopes and dreams of many wearing mortar boards and gowns are exactly the same as the young couple that I described.
          I'm a news junky and the daily pain from the news of this world has made it such that I could never lose myself in plans or even hopes and dreams. Love is disappearing in the world....no.... worse than that, it has been hijacked by greed, tortured by pride and what is left is directed to ourselves and we in America are paying dearly for our dalliances.
          The 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture went to the 1942 American film Mrs. Miniver in which Greer Garson also won for Best Actress. It portrays the upper middle class Miniver family who live outside of London in a very nice home on the River Thames. I list this film as one of my favorites in my Profile for this blog.
          Life could not be sweeter for Mrs. Miniver and her family as she is smitten over an expensive new hat and her husband (Walter Pidgeon) outdoes her by purchasing a sporty new vehicle. Their eldest son has taken up the pipe at university and spouts his political views with heartfelt sincerity but naive certainty much like our youth today and very much like myself at that age. War looms on the horizon but is not taken seriously until England declares war on Germany. Life then changes for the family as their son goes off to war as their own home is damaged by bombs.
          There is a church scene at the beginning of the film and another at the end and the stark contrast of the two is the essence of the film. Americans would already have experienced the realities of war when the film came out and the intended purpose of the film was to rally the American public by showing them the courage and stamina of the British homefront in a war they had already been in for three years. Winston Churchill commented on the book and the film in that they did more for the war effort than a flotilla of battleships.
          I highly recommend the film for the essence, for we are in need of a reality check on what lies before us, and our congregations are in need of an extreme soberness in our worship services that would eliminate distractions and focus us solely on who we are there to worship.

Rotten Eggs

          It didn't start out this way but the National Prayer Breakfast held every first Thursday of February since 1953, as it functions today, is an abomination. It's a huge gala event attended by numerous members of Congress, movers and shakers, and always a special guest. Today's guest was the Dalai Lama. And of course the President of the United States is always there. I published a post on its more benign beginnings, its founders and its secretive nature on January 10th of 2010 if you are interested in particulars, and that post mentions a book that you could read if you want to know a lot more.

Merry-Go-Rounds, Treadmills, And The Doldrums......August 3, 2013

          I believe that it's Jay Leno who has a regular skit where he and a cameraman go into the streets and ask passers-by very simple questions. They then edit the footage to show the people who are clueless to some of the most basic facts of everyday life. I know of at least two Christian ministries that do a very similar thing. One of those ministries will go to Christian conventions and ask the conventioneers, sometimes even attending ministers, very basic questions about the Christian faith. The result is the same as in Jay Leno's skits as a mind-boggling lack of knowledge is displayed.
         Shortly after I became a Christian I developed a strong interest in Christian apologetics, the defense of the Christian Faith, from objections to Christianity and also from distortions of it. Had I been interviewed at the time, I would have shown the same ignorance as the aforementioned interviewees. I was very capable in apologetics but clueless in many of the doctrines of faith, the very truths of my redemption...my salvation!
         In those early days I was always going to Christian bookstores and probably accumulated a couple hundred books. Looking back on it now, there may have only been a dozen or so of them that were not fluff and were theologically sound. Once in a while a book would affect me unlike the others. It would address my mind as well as my emotions or my interests. I began to notice that many of them had this little robed figured of a man on the spine which meant that it was published by Banner Of Truth. Apparently I was reading in something called Reformed Theology.... whatever that was, and there was this broader scope of Reformation Theology....whatever that was. I heard about a conference on this....stuff....and attended. Omitting a few details here, I wound up at a Presbyterian church (it could very well have been Baptist or Lutheran) which was out of the Reformation of the 16th century. That was probably three decades ago. Since then I opened my own Christian bookstore that sold only Christian books such as those with the little robed man on the spine. I have since closed the bookstore, tried my hand at a little novel which is on this blog, wrote newsletters, letters-to-the-editors and finally these posts under the title Special Dog's Conservative Bark.
          I talk to liberals every day. I hear what they say, look into their eyes and it's as if they walked into an amusement park, took a ride on the Merry-Go-Round...and never got off! Round and round they go...up and down. They think that they are observing the world go by but it is only them going in circles. I talk to evangelicals every day...and look into their eyes. It's as if they walked into a gym and  got on the treadmill.....and never got off; thinking they have travelled far, they are often about as knowledgeable of the Christian faith and Christian history as when they first came into the gym.
         There is a nautical term called the doldrums describing areas near the equator known for calm and listless seas where a sail-powered vessel might languish for weeks. America has been in a state of the intellectual doldrums for quite some time. How else can one describe the ascendancy of Barack Obama, a man schooled in socialist and Marxist philosophies, with no paper trail to verify his intellectual abilities or ideological beliefs, who openly proclaimed that he intended to fundamentally change America while many responded with a ho-hum OK, who lowers our defenses while our enemy's militaries grow in might, who oddly seems to consistently back the wrong side in international disputes, who plays golf by day and parties at night while utterly failing in every endeavor other than in that promise to fundamentally change America, and who ignores our constitution and the rule of law.
         How else can one explain a Republican Party made up of people who supposedly circled the wagons in defense of America, but who were then led by the nose by those who have found a niche in Washington D. C. where they sit in judgment on anyone and everyone who might threaten the stability of the nest they built high above the plebeian rabble who trusted them and put them in office.
         How else can one explain a Christian church where the cross of Jesus Christ is considered too morbid to preach, where the protective hedge of doctrinal truth is cut down and false teachers abound, and where abortion is considered more of an irritant than the willful taking of human life.
         When the winds pick up we are going to find ourselves heading into a maelstrom. Only God can take us to a safe harbor but we have made it very clear to Him that He was to stay below deck, out of sight and out of mind.
         Prayer is our only hope; humility is the direction we should set our course for; and only when the breeze rustles the pages of Scripture in the open book before us will we know that God's Holy Spirit may be filling our sails to guide us safely through the tempest.
        

This Particular Darkness

        I caught that picture in the newspaper of Katy Perry riding a robotic tiger in her performance at the Super Bowl halftime show and then a video of the entire show. The sheer spectacle of it, the view from afar of the fireworks that made the stadium appear as a King's crown ablaze in the night, and particularly the raucous celebration of the crowd that I would have expected to be more beer-bellied hardcore football fans amazed and further saddened me. Sunday was once, many many years ago and from our beginning, the Lord's Day, and now it's a day at the coliseum, only today the Christians are also in the stands, confident in what the theologians tell them that God has given them this day to frolic as they want as long as they don't drink or chew or go with girls who do. This hedge of protection has been removed, hewn down, stacked and burned on a funeral pyre of our heritage as the 'roar' of the flames signal our enemies to advance.

 The following was first posted in January of 2012:

America.....Free.....Free Fallin'

          Dawn breaks and pull by pull the flag rises until its stars and stripes blend into the red sky. The 21st century America cold front collides with the warm heritage of American liberty. Dark clouds form above the eagle perched atop the pole and the flag snaps as the winds begin another day of adding to the tatters and waiting for the rain that month by month fades the blue and red hues that Americans have savored as the taste of freedom for so long.
          An icy chill settles in the bones of the one raising the flag for he knows that its stars and stripes will be indiscernible before long. He looks down to see if the cracks in the foundation supporting the pole have widened from the tremors that increasingly shake America...they have. He steps back, standing as erect as he can under the burden of seeing his nation collapse, and salutes; a tear forming as he knows that he may be the last to perform this duty. His mind wanders from, first... the drum and piper escorting the newly created flag, to the inspiration for Francis Scott Key's poem, to the charging Union soldier picking up the banner dropped by a fallen comrade in arms, to the lifting of the flagpole on Mt. Suribachi, to the camo flag on the fatigues of the grunt in Vietnam, to the brilliant contrast of red, white and blue with the gray mountain of fallen steel, brick and mortar of the World Trade Center, to the lone flag now raised in the Green Zone of Baghdad.
          In only a few hours cheers and shouts will be heard off in the distance, not for returning heroes, not as a President passes by, not as a war ends in victory but for the beginning of a football game. The Star Spangled Banner will play and be sung by the latest celebrity seeking a national spotlight but not a word of its lyrics will resonate with the power it had since Fort McHenry. We are not as the Roman Empire falling, we are as the Roman Empire beginning whose gods are numerous, whose Caesars consolidate powers given by a populace that only wants another day at the Coliseum. God's hand is being lifted and the exhilaration of choosing our own destiny emboldens us to stare into the eyes of Caesar and say not, "Give me liberty or give me death" but "Give me liberty to choose my own death." All the while the remaining Christians gather in their catacombs wondering if God's mercies on America are over; imploring of Him one more time for America to be a beacon to the nations, a people that not only openly proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind but evidence the beneficence, mercy, majesty, power and glory of Him who created the universe and without whom not one molecule would continue to exist.
          It was a marvel and a wonder while it existed in its original form....these United States of America, but now they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd (Zech 10:2.) They are a people once different as night and day in their habits and their speech that bonded together as a new entity...Americans, freed from the tyranny of kings, freed from serfdom and most importantly freed from the lie that man is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul, but that freedom, once defended, is now merely petted in the lap of luxury, "Free" as the famous rocker penned..."Free Fallin'." The American Creed, never spoken but always evident, is now but a liberal screed against God, against tradition, and against history itself.
          The sun, obscured throughout the day by clouds, sets in the West. The rain that would normally give life to the fields, runs off of the frozen, barren and lifeless ground. The flag is lowered and gently folded into the shape of a tri-cornered hat, one of the last vestiges that remain of the fight for independence. No Taps is heard, only the music of the night coming from wherever the revelers gather after the game. The winds die down, no longer needed, for the flag has been taken down, while angels sent by God prepare to blow their trumpets.

Pig In A Poke

       I was a junior in high school on January 15th, 1967 when the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs before a crowd of 61,000 at a stadium that could seat well over 90,000 in the first of what would later become known as Super Bowls. Trumpeter Al Hirt was the halftime entertainment. This coming Lord's Day, or Super Bowl Sunday... depending upon the way that you look at that day, the entertainment will be Katy Perry. It will be the 49th Super Bowl. Maybe this will be a Jubilee Year for us?
       It's not optimism, it's a sickness vaguely related to optimism. I'm in conversations every single day where people nonchalantly speak of what they will do three, four, five years from now without the slightest concern of the impending disasters that lie ahead. If I mention the seriousness of the situation they laugh. We think that the economy is doing well because of the stock market but former budget manager for Ronald Reagan calls these profits "totally ill-gotten gains" because of decisions by "dangerous and destructive" people at the Fed, and says that a "day of reckoning" is ahead. We are utterly defenseless as a people. We have the power but not the will nor the discernment. We are afraid of offending people who want to destroy us. We have bought a pig in a poke and are about to find out what is inside.
         There is a remnant of course but we are trying to outrun an avalanche. The gospel is sold on television, hidden even in churches, banned in government and worn like a knockoff Rolex watch. Ah, but what do I know? I know that we are in trouble, that we presumed upon God for well over a century now and and He has increasingly been warning us for well over forty years while we give him about 5% of the time, if that, that we give to entertainment and sport.

The following post is from early last year:

        I wouldn't even hazard a guess at how many times I have wanted to just stop reading the news of the day and I have considered ending the political content in these posts many times but as I read through Scripture every day I see warnings and judgement upon nations that had worshipped false gods and warnings and judgement upon Israel when they had turned from the only true God... the comparisons to America's rebellion against Him too similar to not attempt to bring those warnings out in these posts.
        We criticize Barack Obama, and rightly so, who is the closest example to the legend that Nero fiddled while Rome burned but we ourselves are either dancing to that fiddle or to our own country music. I will never read history again where a nation collapsed and was destroyed without fully understanding how a proud people can become utterly defenseless, unaware of the dangers to them and breathtakingly naive on their own concupiscence to everything the world offers while turning in disdain at that which God told us to hold true and dear to our heart.
         We live on a fault line and are building in the sand. Are there not any leaders left who can simply do what is right without putting that decision up against some political grid before doing it? Are there no news outlets left capable of serving anything but the story du jour? Are there no billionaires who realize that the moment their heart stops beating that they will stand in account before Jesus Christ? Where are the academics who realize that God gave them their ability to think? Where are the scientists who recognize their Creator?
         Have we lost all sense of propriety? Is honor no longer something to be valued? Has liberty become a curse? Have we forgotten the sacrifices made for us? Have we become robots?
         May God have mercy upon us. May the roar as we approach the waterfall overcome the din of applause, laughter and cheering for that which we consider entertainment and the discordant sounds of that which we put forth as conversation, dialogue and debate. May we discern the dissonance between our claim to be a constitutional republic and our actions as giving allegiance to a brutal feudal lord, the love of money.
         May He humble us, have mercy upon us, permit us to reflect His thoughts once again, and remember forever how far we had fallen, how close we were to the precipice, and who alone will have saved us once again, for His purposes and to His glory.